**"In my opinion, the finest of the Vietnam novels."--Tom Wolfe
**
They each had their reasons for joining the Marines. They each had their
illusions. Goodrich came from Harvard. Snake got the tattoo--"Death
Before Dishonor"--before he got the uniform. Hodges was haunted by the
ghosts of family heroes. They were three young men from different
worlds, plunged into a white-hot, murderous realm of jungle warfare as
it was fought by one Marine platoon in the An Hoa Basin, 1969. They had
no way of knowing what awaited them. Nothing could have prepared them
for the madness to come. And in the heat and horror of battle they took
on new identities, took on one another, and were each reborn in fields
of fire.
Fields of Fire is James Webb's classic novel of the Vietnam War, a
novel of poetic power, razor-sharp observation, and agonizing human
truths seen through the prism of nonstop combat. Weaving together a cast
of vivid characters, Fields of Fire captures the journey of unformed
men through a man-made hell--until each man finds his fate.
Praise for Fields of Fire
"Few writers since Stephen Crane have portrayed men at war with such a
ring of steely truth."--The Houston Post
"A stunner . . . Webb gives us an extraordinary range of acutely
observed people, not one a stereotype, and as many different ways of
looking at that miserable war."--Newsweek
"A novel of such fullness and impact, one is tempted to compare it to
Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead."--The Oregonian
"Webb's book has the unmistakable sound of truth acquired the hard way.
His men hate the war; it is a lethal fact cut adrift from personal
sense. Yet they understand that its profound insanity, its blood and
oblivion, have in some way made them fall in love with battle and with
each other."--Time
